Cai Thomas
Directing
Biography
Cai Thomas is a documentary filmmaker and cinematographer based in Chicago telling stories at the intersection of location, self determination, and identity about Black youth and elders. She grew up in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood and is deeply interested in stories rooted in place. Her previous film, Queenie, about a Black lesbian elder in Brooklyn’s Bed Stuy neighborhood premiered at NewFest in 2020 winning the NY Short Grand Jury award and is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. She is a NeXt Doc alum. Cai is currently developing a film about Black Lesbian family planning.
Known For
Queenie Lawrence, a 73-year-young Black Lesbian and resident of the Marcy Projects, navigates applying for the Stonewall Houses, NYC's first LGBT Elder affordable housing.
Queenie
Student activists and educators from Village Leadership Academy campaign to change the name of a park from a slaveholder to abolitionists Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood.
Change The Name
Trina Reynolds-Tyler, a data scientist and journalist at the Invisible Institute, investigates gender-based violence found in complaints made against the Chicago Police Department.
Beneath The Surface
Pulled pork, ribs, and liverwurst sandwiches — these are a few of the Southern delicacies filmmaker Eric D. Seals grew up eating alongside his father, Donnie Seals, Sr. But after facing death and undergoing the first of three quadruple bypass operations, the elder Seals decided to completely overhaul his life. Bike Vessel chronicles Donnie’s new chapter after becoming an avid cyclist, and follows the two men as they set out on an epic bike ride from St. Louis to Chicago.